Glaz, Austria (AP) – A shooter fires inside school The second largest city in Austria Killed on Tuesday 9 people, Authorities said.
At least 12 people were injured in the attack, and the gunman later died of suicide in a school bathroom in Glaz, officials said.
Details about the suspect’s motives and information about the victim were not immediately available.
Here’s what we know:
Nine people were killed
The shooter fired at a school in Glaz, killing nine people and wounding at least 12 before taking his own life, authorities said.
The special forces were among those sent to Borgdreielschutzgas High School, about a kilometre (more than half a mile) from the Glaz History Center after calling at 10am.
At 11:30am, police wrote to Social Network X that the school had been evacuated and that everyone was taken to a safe meeting point.
Austrian Prime Minister Christian Stocker said he was in three days of national mourning, with the Austrian flag in mourning at half price at 10am on Wednesday.
“School is more than just a place to learn,” Stocker said. “It’s a space of trust, a space of safety. The fact that this safe space has been crushed by such acts of violence makes us speechless.”
Glaz, Austria’s second largest city, is located in the southeastern part of the country and has around 300,000 residents.
The gunman was a former student
The gunman was a former student at the school and did not finish his studies, said Gerhard Kerner, Austrian Home Minister. His name has not been made public in line with Austria’s privacy rules.
Authorities say he is a 21-year-old Austrian man with two weapons and appears to own it legally.
Police said they had no information about the man’s motives immediately, but they said they killed him by committing suicide in the toilet after the attack.
Other major attacks in Austria
Tuesday’s violence appeared to be the deadliest attack in Austria’s postwar history.
Other attacks in the country include four people killed in Vienna in 2020, and suspects of Islamic State Group sympathizers also died in a shooting that surprised the Austrian capital. More than 20 other people were injured, including police officers.
In 2019, a 25-year-old man threw himself into Austrian police after killing his ex-girlfriend, her family and her new boyfriend in the town of Kitzbuhell, the Alpine resort. And then, almost a decade ago, on June 20, 2015, a man killed three people and injured more than 30 people, sprinting through the crowds of downtown Glaz in an SUV.
Austrian gun culture
Austria has some more liberal gun laws in the European Union. Traditionally, many alpine countries go hunting, and therefore carry weapons is more common, and less for self-defense.
Several weapons, such as rifles and shotguns, which need to be reloaded manually after each shot, can be purchased in Austria from the age of 18 without permission. The gun dealer must check the buyer to see if there is a weapon ban, and then the weapon is added to the central weapon register.
Other weapons such as repeat shotguns and semi-automatic firearms are more difficult to acquire. Buyers will need a gun ownership card and a firearm pass.
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